- Jan Cook
- Posted On
New Middletown Library marks five years of service
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown branch of Lake County Library located at 21256 Washington St. is celebrating its first five years since moving from the historic Gibson Library across the highway.
Come on it and see what the library offers to the public.
The library supplies books and so much more to the community.
The library’s resources and programs include free high-speed wifi, public computers, downloadable digital content, storytime at 11:30 a.m. each Tuesday and a book club that meets at 3:30 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month.
The Middletown Library features more than 20,000 books, DVDs, audiobooks and other materials.
Through the shared library catalog and circulation system, Middletown library patrons can also borrow from the collections of the Lake, Sonoma and Mendocino County Libraries.
The library shares the building with the Middletown Senior Center and the Middletown Community Center. The meeting room is available for programs.
When modern library needs and increased usage rendered the Gibson Library obsolete, the new library was planned.
Nearly a decade and a half went into planning, raising the necessary funds and construction on the new 5,500 square foot library, which was dedicated April 13, 2013.
Chauncey W. Gibson, an Oakland businessman and philanthropist who owned property and vacationed in southern Lake County, donated the money to build the Middletown Library and a similar library in Oakland’s Montclair neighborhood.
The Gibson Library served Middletown from 1930 to 2013.
In the 1970s, the Gibson was one of Lake County’s town libraries that joined together in the newly-formed Lake County Library.
After Middletown’s new library opened, the Gibson Library started its new life as the Gibson Museum and Cultural Center.
The Friends of Middletown Library, or FML, have supported the library for many years with funds raised from book sales large and small.
They contributed $20,000 toward the building’s construction and paid for the patron donation wall in the lobby.
FML made possible the library’s exterior painted quilt block on the Lake County Quilt Trail. The group helps fund the Dolly Parton Imagination Library for preschoolers and in 2017 donated $10,000 for children’s books, CDs and DVDs.
The next FML meeting will be on May 15 at 4 p.m. at the library.
After the Valley fire in 2015, the library and senior center temporarily served as the headquarters for a local assistance center, housing several relief and recovery agencies.
The library continued to serve the community in the days afterward, making available public computers to submit claims and winning a grant from the state to provide books and other materials to help with the relief effort.
The Lake County Library is on the internet at http://library.lakecountyca.gov, http://library.lakecountyca.gov and www.facebook.com/LakeCountyLibrary.
Jan Cook is a technician with the Lake County Library.